


Razzmatazz and the Sweetheart

by WattStalf



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, also she kills them, francesca hurts someone a lot, she sucks, super hero universe, uhhh shes a creep too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 18:39:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5216444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With such gorgeous heroines and villainesses running around, the citizens of Louis City wonder who the most beautiful is. Meanwhile, Razzmatazz cares significantly less than the Sweetheart does.</p><p>Follow up to Myrmidon and the Penalty and Ataraxia, Cutlass, and the Penalty, but less related. Same universe, same characters, different focus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Razzmatazz and the Sweetheart

**Author's Note:**

> The final short story for my English class. This one is a very different direction than the other two, as Francesca isn't a central focus, but she's still a character because I can't resist. I'm not really as proud of this one as the others but I was working on a deadline and had to produce something.

Alexandra Gale loved magic and she loved magicians. From a young age, she knew she wanted to be one, and began practicing when she was only a child. But when the villain, Corina Raine, hit the scene with a magician's wand in hand, society's view of magicians faltered, and magic became something associated with crime and destruction. Alex, however, knew the joy it brought her and had brought those around her, and could not bring herself to believe she was doing something wrong. And so she continued to practice in secret, until she was nearly as gifted as Corina was.

Around that time, Corina- originally presumed dead- made her return to the world of crime, and new villains popped up in her wake. A young man who called himself Myrmidon began protecting the streets of Louis City, and that was when Alex decided what had to be done. She donned a red sequined tailcoat, with shorts and a top hat to match, a white button down, a yellow vest, yellow high heels, a pair of a fishnet stockings, and a purple flower pinned to her lapel, and took to the streets as Razzmatazz. She used a yellow domino mask to conceal her identity, and it was not long before Myrmidon approached her about joining a vigilante group called the Cavalry.

It was her, Myrmidon (who was really named Jack), and Francesca (known on the streets as the Penalty) at first, but it was not long before they were joined by a powerful telekinetic named Will (calling himself Ataraxia) and a young genius named Anabel (who took on the alias Serendipity). The team grew in exponentially in popularity in relation to its growth in numbers, and with that came a certain air of celebrity for each member of the team. Jack was known as an all-American boy scout, while Francesca was made famous by virtue of being the strongest member of the team. Will was considered an oddity and a curiosity, and many people tried- and failed- to duplicate Anabel's gadgets and inventions. Alex took time to catch on, what with the public still having a negative view of magicians, but when she did, she was hailed as one of the greatest beauties that their city had ever seen.

This confused her just a little bit. She had always considered herself to be fairly attractive, had always had a confidence in her looks that carried over into her flirty and carefree nature, but she had never expected that attitude to catch on. After all, she was not what anyone would consider conventionally attractive. She was no classic beauty, and though she had always appreciated and shown off what she had, it still caught her by surprise when the media latched on to that.

She was short- the shortest member of the team- and she was heavyset. This gave her natural curves that she had to do nothing to maintain, but it was rare that someone would look past her weight to see that in the past. She had a complexion like a Hershey Kiss, and the tips of her curly black hair were dyed lavender. In her eyes, she was gorgeous. Now, she was gorgeous in the eyes of the public, and she found that flattering, to say the least.

Her popularity did not end or begin with the media. Alex had no interest in pursuing any relationships, romantic, sexual, or otherwise, but she could not help flaunting what she had and would flirt with those around her. From the beginning, it had been clear that Jack was interested in her, and she honestly felt bad that she could not return his affection. She considered him to be her closest friend, and often wished she could love him, because if anyone would be a good life partner, it would be him. Will had a rather obvious crush on her and she noticed Francesca's eyes following her every now and then. Even Anabel, who typically only had eyes for the latter, spared her a glance and a blush every now and again. Cutlass, a swordsman and ally who had not joined the Cavalry, had disliked her from the start, calling her some very unkind names in regards to her attempts to flirt with him, but even he had not been above a few looks here or there.

~X~

Annelise Blair had not set out to have a career as a villain, but that was where life had taken her and she couldn't really complain too much about the outcome. It wasn't the glamorous modeling career she had dreamed of her whole life, but she still got the attention she desired and people still told her that she was beautiful. Sure, the general public feared her, but she saw that as more of a bonus, if she was going to be perfectly honest.

Her biggest problem was that she had a volatile temper. To say she was a diva would be an understatement, but that was normally not an issue for those in show business. For someone with the right look, those sorts of things could be worked around. However, she was also incredibly, unnaturally strong for a girl her size, and when she got upset, she was not able to control that. Any modeling jobs she landed were quickly ended whenever something- or someone- got seriously damaged by her own brute strength and bad mood.

After enough failed modeling jobs, she had a short stint in adult entertainment, but yet again, her strength was just a bit too much to handle. None of the men she interacted with left unscathed, and it soon didn't matter how beautiful she was- nobody wanted to work with Annelise. With any hope of performing out the window, she had no idea where to turn. All her life, she had wanted to be adored, had wanted the attention she felt she deserved, and now that was taken away from her. Her frustration with her lack of work lit the fuse on her temper, and that was how she ended up knocking over a fancy boutique.

The next day, her picture was in all the papers. She was referred to as a “classic beauty”, with her fair skin and curly blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, and the media took that and ran with it. Suddenly, she had a reputation as a criminal, and though that initially bothered her, the attention that came with it didn't. She was in the newspaper; she was on TV; pretty soon, she would probably be in magazines! If this was what it took to get her noticed, that was fine by her, and she created a costume modeled after the fashion of the late forties and called herself the Sweetheart.

Not long after that, she was pulling bank robberies and kidnapping wealthy men and doing anything else that would get her a little bit of news coverage. She was popular, but her crimes got more repetitive and less attention-grabbing, and the Cavalry always managed to nab her in the end. She needed to find a way to stay relative, so when she received an invitation to attend a meeting of villains from around the city, she attended.

The purpose of the meeting was to form an alliance similar to the Cavalry and attempt to gain some sort of advantage over them. Of course, the criminals all had different motives and selfish natures, and the meeting dissolved into pointless arguments. In the midst of this confusion, she noticed a man sitting across from her. He was handsome, with short brown hair and muscular arms, dressed in a leather vest and with an easy smirk on his face. His alias, she knew, was Ramshackle, and he caught her eye like no man had before.

Ever since then, she had done some work as his henchgirl and nothing more. Despite all of her efforts to catch his eye, his eye seemed to have already been caught by the Penalty, and that was all that he gave his focus to. Annelise didn't know why he cared so much about the vigilante; she knew they had some sort of history, but the woman was nothing special. If anything, she was entirely unattractive, with a masculine bearing and creepy smile. Annelise was better than her in every way, yet, if Conrad noticed, he did not care. He had the most beautiful woman in the city- maybe even the world, if she was feeling particularly vain- at his beck and call, and yet his attention belonged to a vulgar, gun-toting chain smoker.

~X~

Alex was out on a solo patrol one night when she heard the telltale signs of a mugging. She had become quite adept at running in heels, and so she reached the source of the noise in no time, finding a family of four being held at knife point by three rough-looking men. They were nobody, not even villains worth a heroes time, but there was a man and a woman and two young boys in danger, so Alex pulled out her magic wand.

“Stop right there!” she declared.

“Mommy, look, it's Razzmatazz!” one of the boys said. “She'll save us!”

The three men all turned to charge her, and she smirked. It was all too easy and she said her incantations and blasted them away. One tripped over shoelaces that had mysteriously tangled become tied together while another tripped over a bump in the pavement that had not been there before. The final reached Alex only to be pushed back by a force field she conjured, and the three lay in a pile as she produced three pairs of handcuffs from her previously empty coat pockets.

When the police arrived to arrest the criminals and inquire after what had happened, they were followed by a few reporters, all eager to get an interview with Razzmatazz. One reporter managed to corner her, shoving his microphone in her face while asking, “Do you have anything to say after the apprehension of these three criminals?”

“The same thing I always have to say,” she replied. “Stay on the right side of the law, or you'll have to face me!” She winked at the camera.

“That honestly sounds a bit tempting,” replied the reporter with a laugh. “If being a criminal means I'd get to see a pretty thing like you all the time...”

Alex giggled, swatting at his chest playfully. “Oh, stop it!” Really, she had heard it all a dozen times before.

~X~

Annelise was bored out of her mind while Conrad was busy working out the plans for a new attack on the city, the details of which he refused to reveal until there was more to go off of. She was so bored, in fact, that she decided to watch the news, even though she had no interest in it when she knew she would not be featured.

“The Louis City Sweetheart strikes again!” said the anchorman. She sat up a bit, surprised. What on earth were they talking about? She hadn't been active in days! But then they called an image to the screen, and instead of her own face, she saw the face of Razzmatazz.

“What the hell?!” she screamed at the TV. The program went on to describe how the “beautiful heroine” had saved the day and was slowly gaining popularity. The program closed out with calling her the most beautiful woman in the city, and that was when Annelise let out a loud shriek, standing up and lifting the television. She swung it at a wall, watching as it broke and created a hole in the wall.

She growled, closing in on it and throwing a fist through what was left of the screen. “Stupid!” she snarled. “Stupid! Fucking! News!” After she had pulled her fist out, she stood and began stomping on the destroyed television, screaming incoherently.

“What the fuck is goin' on in here?” asked Conrad, stepping into the room. He looked annoyed when she turned to him, her chest heaving.

“The news! They...they called _Razzmatazz_ the most beautiful girl in the city! They called her the Louis City _Sweetheart_!” she said, pointing to the mess at her feet.

He stared at her, unamused. “And?”

“ _I'm_ the Sweetheart! That's my goddamn name, and everyone knows it! They can't just go handing it out to the fucking heroes! And  _I_ am the most beautiful girl in the city! Me! Not that stupid magician  _whore_ !”

“Well, I don't know whacha want me ta do about it,” he replied, sounding bored. “If yer so upset about this, maybe you should take care of Razzmatazz yerself. One less Cavalry member means less trouble for everyone an' all.”

“What a lovely idea!” she squealed, not noticing how disinterested he seemed. “You're always so full of good ideas, it's what makes you such a great boss. Well...that among other things.” She winked at him, but he didn't react. “Well, I suppose I better get started! Razzmatazz is going to wish she hadn't crossed the real Sweetheart!”

~X~

Jack always insisted that the team watch the morning and evening news together to scour for anything going on that they might have missed. It was also supposed to be good for team bonding, but that was not something that Alex thought was going to happen any time soon.

During the morning news, she had felt a surge of pride, seeing herself portrayed in such a positive light, beaming when she had been called the most beautiful woman in the city. Jack had blushed heavily while congratulating her and Will had looked ready to agree before stopping himself, blushing even more heavily. Anabel had practically tripped over herself to give Alex a hug- why she had decided that was the appropriate reaction, Alex didn't know- and Francesca had given her a smirk and mumbled, “Nice.”

But when the evening news rolled around, there was a very different story being told. One of the reporters was on-location at some downtown art fair when they were shoved out of the way by none other than the Sweetheart, grabbing his microphone and staring directly into the camera as she said, “Alright, listen up, Louis City! This morning, it came to my attention that there are some uneducated idiots out there who don't think I'm the prettiest girl in town!”

She paused, sending a pointed glare to the camera, as if accusing every visitor. “Well, lucky for you, I'm here to remind you that that is not the case. I am, and nobody else is. And anyone who would dare to call another woman prettier than me, or even be so bold as to call _her_ the city Sweetheart, better watch their backs. And as for you, Razzmatazz, you need to watch your back most of all, because I don't take too kindly to people stealing my stuff. The spotlight is mine and the title of 'Sweetheart' is mine, and you're going to pay for trying to take those from me!” She broke into a cliché maniacal laugh and the camera cut back to the news station.

“Viewers, we can assure you that that was not staged and was completely unplanned for,” one of the anchormen said. “What you just witnessed was a real and candid message from the Sweetheart, who seems to be enraged by this morning's report and is calling out Razzmatazz for a fight.”

“But what we at channel thirteen want to know is, who really _is_ the most beautiful woman in the city?” asked the other. “I mean, there are some who claim it's Razzmatazz and others who would cast their vote with Sweetheart. Maybe the only way to really settle this fight is to really put it to a vote, and see who the most popular of these two dynamic women is!”

The TV turned off at that moment and the others turned to see Alex pointing her wand at it. She stood up and said, “Don't worry about any of that. It doesn't matter.” Then, she turned and made her way for the stairs, ignoring whatever it was that Jack said to try and stop her.

When she was alone in her room, she sighed. It was nice, getting attention like that and she was honored that there were people who would compare her looks to those of a knockout like the Sweetheart, but at the same time, it all felt so hollow. A woman who was wanted on multiple counts of murder and God-knows-what-else had just assaulted a reporter and hijacked the evening news to threaten her, and it had been turned into a popularity poll. It was a battle of life and death for the heroes and villains, and the civilians, who hung in the balance, didn't seem to realize just how serious all of this was.

 _They're lucky_ , she thought bitterly. Her door opened then and she smelled the stench of old smoke before she turned to see Francesca leaning in the doorway.

“What is it?” she asked. The older woman's bright green eyes trailed up and down Alex's body before she stepped forward, the scent of smoke becoming heavier as she entered the room.

“Just wonderin',” she said. “I mean, that whole thing on TV. Crazy, huh? Just wonderin' how ya feel about all that, about yer little rival.” She sneered; it was no secret that Francesca didn't like the Sweetheart, most likely due to her affiliation with Ramshackle.

“I think it's bullshit,” she said. “I don't care.”

“Well, for what it's worth,” said Francesca, crossing the distance between them and laying a hand on Alex's shoulder, “ya got my vote.” She laughed her horrible, raspy laugh then and Alex felt a chill, something that she had been experiencing around the older teammate more and more often recently. She leaned in, then, and Alex froze, not sure what the other woman was doing. Her face came to rest just a few inches from Alex's and she stared for a few moment, smirking.

“Not today,” she said at last, pulling away and walking out of the room without another word. Alex had no idea what she was talking about.

~X~

“Conrad, could you come in here for a second?” Annelise called, a wicked grin on her face. If her latest plan didn't work, she didn't know what would, and she unzipped her dressed.

“What is it?” he asked, opening the door to her room. Just as he entered, she let her dress fall to the floor and let out a theatrical gasp of surprise.

“Why, Conrad, I'm surprised! How could you walk in on a lady in such a state of undress?” she scolded, pouting her lips. She made no effort to cover herself, hoping he would take in all she had to offer with the delight she had anticipated.

But, once again, he looked completely disinterested. “You invited me in here,” he replied. “If ya want me to leave...”

“No, I don't want you to leave!” she snapped. “Christ, how dense can you possibly be?”

“Annelise,” he started.

“No, I don't want to hear it!” she shot back. “I swear to God, if this is about the Penalty...I hate her! I really do hate her, you know that?”

Conrad's face darkened and he said, “Ya hate her, huh? Ya really do? Because, if I was you, I'd think a little more carefully before makin' a big decision like that.” He sounded calm, but she was not fooled. She had made a mistake in saying that, and if she did not cover her tracks appropriately, it could mean very serious consequences.

“Oh, come on,” she said, laughing nervously. “You know I was just kidding, right? You know me, right? Of course I was! You know the one I really hate is Razzmatazz, right?”

There was a pause and she held her breath while she waited for his response. Finally, after what felt like ages, he smirked and said, “That's what I thought. Now, if ya don't mind, I'm gonna go back to what I was doin' and you can get some clothes on.”

He did not hear her breathe a sigh of relief as he left the room.

~X~

There came a day when the Sweetheart, most likely tired of waiting for the results of the popularity poll, decided to pull a very big, very obvious heist that the Cavalry was quick to arrive to and attempt to stop. She did not put much effort into defending her schemes, and instead abandoned them in favor of a full-on confrontation. She wanted to fight Alex, that much was clear, and had hired henchmen to keep the other members of the team at bay.

“Are you ready to settle this?” she asked, staring her opponent down.

“I don't see anything to settle,” Alex replied in a cocky tone of voice. “You and I both know which one of us is going to win this.”

“Oh, I know,” replied the Sweetheart. “I just don't think you do.”

“Listen, I'm going to play fair and give you a chance to give up,” Alex said. “Just admit that I'm better than you in every way and turn yourself in, and I won't have to hurt you too much.” Even though she was only saying these things because she knew the Sweetheart's ego would be her downfall, she felt strange feeding off the strange competition.

That seemed to ignite a fire in the other woman, who shot a death glare. “Big talk for such a big loser. When I'm done with you, I'm gonna tear up the rest of your team and it's gonna be your fault for not stopping me. I'm especially going to enjoy killing the Penalty. She gets to learn not to take what's mine too, and then Ramshackle will finally-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Francesca charged at her, tackling her to the ground. She must have finished fighting her own opponents rather quickly to prepare a sneak attack like that, and she must have heard what had been said about her. As soon as she was upon the Sweetheart, she had her pinned, punching her face mercilessly. Soon, the woman's beautiful face was reduced to a bloody mess.

“Such a shame I gotta beat up such a pretty lady,” Francesca said, sneering. “But I just can't tolerate that kinda talk. Yer gonna kill me, huh? Yer gonna take Ramshackle for yourself, huh? Forgive me if I. Just. Don't. Believe you!” She punctuated each word with a blow, bursting into hysterical laughter when she had finished. Her hand reached at her back, drawing the rifle she kept there, and Alex watched in awed horror as she began to beat the villain with the butt of her gun.

The scene was brutal to behold, but Alex could not turn away, even when Francesca stood, looking down at her handiwork with pride. The Sweetheart was no longer recognizable and no longer breathing. Francesca had killed her and she chuckled. “Sorry to steal yer show, honey,” she said, shrugging. “You know how it is when someone makes me mad an' all. Didn't like the way she was talkin' about me.”

~X~

If Conrad noticed that his most devoted henchgirl had not returned, he did not say anything.


End file.
